Imagine Festival Review

Aug 28-29, 2015

written by Charlie Spooner

all photos by OwlEyesOnYou

 

It’s not often that you find a music festival right in the heart of a city, let alone one as vibrant and alive as Atlanta, so when we got the opportunity to cover Imagine Music Festival we jumped at the chance and took the long drive down to Georgia.  The ride down was easy and although suffering from the basic parking problems that any city has, we eventually found a spot and made our way to the Historic Fourth Ward Park, where the show was just getting started.

On the stage as we arrived was Kayzo, a DJ from LA, along with costumed gogo dancers and explosive confetti blasters that let us know that Imagine fest was going to be a two day long rager.  His aggressive EDM had fists pumping hard into the air and the energy was palpable.  As a change of pace, Buku was dropping beats with a much more laidback vibe on another stage and that was where Imagineers were able to take a break, groove, hang with friends and soak up the sounds as their bodies recharged from the harder beats being pumped out elsewhere.

In the early evening, G Jones pumped up the intensity and volume and it was reflected in the crowd that kept growing larger and larger as his set progressed. Across the park, Brillz ran the trap and scored a touchdown as a school of inflatable Nemos thrown by an army of mermaids ran interference by swimming on the sweat soaked shoulders of would be tacklers.  On top of that lunacy, we encountered a free mechanical shark on our way to the next stage.  As if a bull wasn’t badass enough.

At the Imaginarium stage Sylo was dropping an infectious remix of Icona Pop’s ‘I Don’t Care,’ a notorious guilty pleasure track, and was singing it along with everyone before he somehow amped up the energy even more when he got us all to shout in unison the chorus of Kid Cudi’s ‘Pursuit of Happiness.’  Sylo was an instant fan favorite.

Le Castle Vania had a disappointing set next and couldn’t keep the massive crowd that G Jones had left him from migrating over to Griz.  As we too walked over, the overgrowth of ravers on the lawn made it look like an abandoned field that hadn’t been mown in years.  When we finally cut through the dense brush of bodies we grabbed a spot off to the side where we could dance the set away.  Griz got us into a sensual groove and showed with his sultry beats and smooth jazz hooks why he commands such a large crowd.  Later, the confetti celebration that was Morgan Page’s set left the grass covered in a white tissue snow and for a brief moment we were in a winter wonderland lit by lasers and glow batons.

 

The night was finally coming up to its climax as Shpongle was finishing.  He has a sound and style all to himself that is a joy to experience in person no matter how many times we see him.  He is like the highlander; there can be only one, and he did not disappoint. No matter how much we enjoyed seeing Simon up on the tables, he was only the appetizer for our main course of Glitch Mob.  The Mob is a live custom synth/drum pad/turntable performance of high energy captivating genre stomping glitch music.  The multitudes of festivarians were infatuated from the first notes of this anthemic music and none of us wanted the night to end here.

The other headliner of the night was Dave Tipper, who provides listeners with a unique combination of impressive turntable scratching and synthesized fart sounds that somehow enamours and amazes festival crowds time and time again.  This time around in his flatulent foray were visuals designed by the psychedelic compugraphic art master Android Jones who created a mesmerizing display of ever-changing abstract yet geometric layered patterns that demanded our undivided attention.  However, even with Android Jones’s world famous visuals, Glitch Mob was by far a better way to end the night.  Afterwards there was a rushed outpouring of neon and tye-die clad bros, ratchets, bass heads and hippies flowing out into the streets of the Empire City of the South and set to return in throngs the next day.

After a night filled with dreams of lasers, lights and lovely beats we freshened up and prepared to go back for another day of dancing.  Although non-camping festivals come with the added cost of finding accommodations, the places you find generally provide sleep and amenities much closer to those of home than tents do and having a shower in the morning makes not only your day start of better, but when everyone gets a chance to shower, everything just seems fresher.  Our arrival at Fourth Ward Park for day two was with a renewed sense of adventure and expectation of the days festivities.

Further opening up our hearts and minds to the wondrous possibilities of the day was the remix of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ that we were greeted with upon our entry.  It was dropped by Fyer, a duo with live guitar and keys and an emcee with turntables that had a refreshing quasi organic feel.  Afterwards came the highly anticipated Ying Yang Twins who dropped their hits and were greeted with tons of love in their electric homecoming reception.  Then were the relaxed deep house beats of Party of One, Canadian electro house producer Felix Cartal who had the chops to handle the main stage and finally rounding off the afternoon was the high energy hardstyle and dubstep of 12th Planet who had the crowd in a fervor as bubbles filled the sky.

As evening was upon us our most anticipated act of the weekend, The Crystal Method, came up to bat.  We have loved them since we heard ‘Busy Child’ in grade school and they didn’t disappoint as they mutated our love for them from the nostalgic to the present and cemented their place in our hearts.  Sharing the timeslot was Papadosio, an odd fit at Imagine judging by the rest of the lineup, they held their own as they pushed forth positive vibes and an eco friendly message that uplifts while educating.  They even dropped a new song for their encore and gave longtime fans a treat.

Atlanta based rapper Lil Jon was a no show due to health reasons so on to Chromeo it was.  Their DJ only set still hit its mark despite the lack of instrumentation.  Afterwards we checked out the hard trappy crunkstep stylings of Crizzly.  The horde was in a frenzy as the emcee crowdsurfed atop an inflatable pizza.  Later they threw actual Domino’s pizza into the crowd in a move that upstaged even Steve Aoki’s antics.  We’ve seen a lot of gimmicks and hijinks at shows but Crizzly gave us seasoned reporters a first.

Once again, the two headliners of the night were pitted against each other dividing up the large crowds into manageable sizes.  The first option to end out the weekend was Datsik.  His trap laden dubstep was for those who just couldn’t get enough raging and wanted to keep up the energy before spilling out onto the Atlanta streets.  Looking out into the crowd it looked like a choppy sea of people cresting and falling in tune with his downbeats.  The second choice was Dada Life, the progressive electro house duo from Sweden.  What we discovered at their set was a beautiful soundscape called Dada Land that ended the night for all those who wanted a smoother transition in the void left in Imagine’s place.

Imagine fest stayed true to its ATL music roots all weekend long by having a lineup dominated by trap artists.  Unfortunately though, with so many artists circling the same sonic style, the signature sound became mundane with only two or three trappers standing out from the crowd.  The real treat of this festival came from the colorful sprinkles of different genres dispersed amongst the somehow all too vanilla trap.  But when the music was good, it was truly great and there was always a different stage to go to if you weren’t digging what was in front of you.  Where Imagine really stood out was how it used its money to give back to the crowd.  There were thousands of glow batons given out, inflatable fishes and balls too and even the previously mentioned mechanical shark along with gogo dancers, aerial artists, trampoline performers and an impressively large incendiary dome.  The ticket price was well justified and it felt like you were really buying something of value.  Imagine is a fest that did it right and feels like it will only get better in the future.